Ch-Ch-Changes! Moving to Miami!

I’m at day three of settling into my new temporary home in South Florida where Brent and I will be living for the next four or five months. And so far it’s gone surprisingly well (some noise issues aside).

Did you know it’s 2,720 miles by air from Seattle to Miami? That makes them the two major U.S. cities the farthest from each other. And with such a huge distance comes a lot of changes. For instance, it’s sunny here in Miami. Really sunny! And it doesn’t rain all winter! Coming from cold, dreary, wet Seattle, I can't overstate how amazeballs that is. Plus, Spanish is heard here more often than English, which is why I’m glad I’ve started to learn that language. Also, there are alligators. Lots of them. Basically, they are the pigeons of Florida.

How have these changes affected my life so far? My reasons for leaving weren't running away from anything. Rather it was running toward something. While I love Seattle, I'd grown pretty darn bored with it. It was time for something new. New weather. New experiences. New things to see and do.

Apart from keeping an eye out for lurking alligators, the changes have been really positive. I’ve started doing a fitness class taught by one of the other residents at the co-living group where we're staying in Miami. This makes a nice change to my old workout routine back home. Turns out there are some muscle groups I hadn’t been using.

I also find I’m more conscious about what I’m eating and actually eating less, which is good since eating is something I do to relieve stress. (And, man, was 2017 stressful! Like I have to tell you that.) I’m also less obsessed with politics, and that is awesome as some days it had taken over my life. And rather than Brent and I usually only seeing and talking to each other most days, now we’re meeting tons of new people. So far I’ve chatted with folks from Germany, the Netherlands, Italy, Switzerland, and Australia, plus Americans from all over the country. Most of them are pretty cool, too.

Best of all, it’s allowed me to shake up my writing routine, which fits in perfectly with how 2018 is shaping up. Not only do I have a new agent – the awesome Saritza Hernandez – but I’m bringing a new focus and discipline to my work. And it turns out having a new location allows me to focus more diligently on my polishing up A Broken Land for submission to editors (woo hoo!), coming up with ideas for a new series, and doing even more on social media.

I’m sure some of this would have happened had Brent and I stayed back in Seattle, but certainly not all of it. And it definitely wouldn’t have had the same air of excitement that upending our life has created. I knew we’d fallen into a rut back home, but it turns out that was a really deep rut -- like Grand Canyon-sized -- and it’s great to have pulled ourselves out of it.

I don’t think running away from your problems is a way to live life, and thankfully this move wasn’t about that. But it was about getting a fresh perspective on the world. And so far it’s worked in spades!